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April 1, 2002

2009-10 Season - 2001-02 MEN'S BASKETBALL REVIEW

2001-02 MEN'S BASKETBALL REVIEW

VIKINGS FINISH SECOND IN THE CCIW; DREW CARSTENS EARNS NCAA DIVISION III ALL-AMERICAN HONORS AFTER RECORD BREAKING YEAR

For the first time since the 1993-94 season the Augustana Vikings men's basketball team has put together back-to-back seasons with at least 17 victories. It was also back in 1993-94 that the Blue & Gold finished as high as second in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin, something that third year head coach Grey Giovanine's plucky bunch of scrappers did this year.

The 2001-02 season was a success, no matter how you look at it. The Vikings finished the year with a 17-8 overall record and a 9-5 mark in the CCIW, good for a second place tie with Elmhurst.

There were two points during the year where even the optimistic and always upbeat Giovanine had to wonder where his team was headed. The first came on December 5 when the Vikings walked out of the Marycrest International Activities Center in Davenport, Iowa with a 90-80 loss to the Marycrest Marauding Eagles hanging over their heads. That defeat left Augustana with a 2-3 record and on the horizon was a home date with St. Ambrose, a club that held a three game winning streak in the highly competitive neighborhood rivalry. Add to that was the fact that the Viking defense had been almost non-existent during the first five games of the season, having given up 428 points for an average of 85.6 per contest.

An 83-68 win over St. Ambrose on December 8 put the Blue & Gold on what would eventually become a nine game winning streak. After beating Wheaton, ranked fourth in the NCAA Division III national poll at the time, on January 12 by a score of 85-71 the Vikings were 11-3 overall and a perfect 3-0 in the CCIW.

Then came blip number two on the radar screen when a three game stretch between January 16 and January 23 produced three losses by a total of seven points: at Millikin (76-78) on the 16^th, at Elmhurst (83-87) on the 19^th and a crushing last second home loss on the 23^rd to Carthage, the number one ranked team in the nation, by a score of 64-63. After the defeat to Carthage, the Vikings were 11-6 overall and 3-3 in the league and facing a road trip to North Central.

With the season hanging in the balance the Vikings responded with an 80-45 crushing of the Cardinals and they wound up winning six of eight games down the stretch. The only losses were both on the road - 80-73 at Wheaton on January 31 and 84-70 at Carthage on the last night of the regular season, February 23.

For the second consecutive year Giovanine's team once again established the Roy J. Carver Center as one of the toughest places in the league to play. The Vikings were 11-1 at home this year after posting a 10-1 homecourt record a year ago, the best two year stretch since they went 27-2 in 1980-81 (14-1) and 1981-82 (13-1). Augustana has made the Carver Center its basketball home since the 1971-72 season and since that time has posted an overall record of 308-83 for a winning percentage of .787. In CCIW play the Vikings are 181-57 for a winning percentage of .761. The win over St. Ambrose this year was the 300^th Augustana victory in the history of the building.

Sophomore Drew Carstens (Downers Grove North HS, Downers Grove, IL) posted one of the most remarkable seasons in the history of Augustana College. Despite averaging just 11.0 field goal attempts per game, Carstens managed to score 506 points for an average of 21.1 points per game. Playing at the shooting guard position and standing just 6'2", and weighing in at 175 pounds, Carstens was almost impossible to stop down low. He made an absolute living at the free throw line, connecting on 208 of 249 charity tosses for a .835 shooting percentage.

His prowess at the free throw line allowed him to take down the two oldest school records on the books. His 208 free throws made eclipsed the old mark of 148 held by Steve Snow (1968-69) and the 249 attempts erased Paul Lauritzen's 1953-54 record of 207 from the books. In conference play Carstens made 135 of 155 free throws and broke the CCIW record of 126 set by Jim Peters of Elmhurst in 1969-70. It should be noted that Peters played when the CCIW had a 16 game season and Carstens broke his record in two less games.

Carstens moved into 12^th place on Augustana's single season scoring list with his 506 points, just one behind the 507 put up by Dave Anderson in 1982-83. For his career he has scored a total of 852 points. He finished the season as the second leading scorer in the CCIW, averaging 20.5 points per game in league play, and just 0.4 points per game behind scoring champion Luke Kasten of Illinois Wesleyan. Kasten scored 293 points in 14 games while Carstens had 287 points in 14 games. Carstens led the CCIW in free throw percentage at .871 in league play (135-155) and he was 10^th in assists with an average of 2.29 per game. He was 11^th in steals (1.14 spg) and 11^th in three point field goal percentage at .400 (24-60) while finishing fifth in three point field goals made per game at 1.71.

Carstens (Downers Grove North HS, Downers Grove, IL) was a unanimous first team selection on the CCIW All-conference team. He moves up to the first team after winning second team honors following his freshman season.  Carstens, a 6' 2", 175 pounder, was joined on the first team by Rob Garnes, Antoine McDaniel and Jason Wiertel of league champion Carthage and Luke Kasten of Illinois Wesleyan. McDaniel was selected as the winner of the Fred Young "Most Outstanding Player" award. All but Kasten were unanimous selections.

Carstens added to his honors in the post season when he was named to the D3hoops.com NCAA Division III All-American team in the middle of March. He was a fourth team selection and becomes the first Augustana men's basketball player to gain All-American honors since the 1992-93 season when both Aben Cooper and Kirk Anderson were selected off the Vikings team that finished second in the nation.

Viking junior Mike Nee (York HS, Elmhurst, IL), a 6-4, 195 pound forward, was named third team All-conference for the second straight year.

Nee was a steady contributor all season long for the Vikings. He averaged 10.8 points per game in CCIW play, good for 17^th in the scoring race and he was sixth in the league in field goal percentage at .526 (61-116) and fourth in three point field goal percentage at .467 (14-30).

Besides Carstens, Augustana had two other individual leaders in the final CCIW statistics as center Adam Rue (Putnam County HS, Granville, IL) topped the league in blocked shots and point guard Jim Thomas led in assist/turnover ratio. Rue blocked 36 shots in 12 league games for an average of 3.00 per game and Thomas had 47 assists (3.4 per game) to 26 turnovers (1.9 per game) for a 1.81 ratio in 14 contests. Bill Goehrke (Hoffman Estates HS, Hanover Park, IL) was third in field goal percentage as he shot .592 (42-71) in 14 league games.  Shaun Clements (Lake Zurich HS, Lake Zurich, IL) was right behind him at .567 (55-97) and Brad Novak (Rock Island HS, Rock Island, IL) was eighth in at .509 (58-114).

While Carstens was topping the league in free throw percentage, freshman Brian Allured (Wheaton North HS, Wheaton, IL) was in fifth place at .821 (32-39). Goehrke was eight in rebounding (90 in 14 games for 6.4 per CCIW game) and Clements and Novak tied for ninth at 5.9 (83 in 14 games). Allured finished third in assists with 3.43 per game and Thomas was fourth with 3.36 per game. Thomas was eighth in steals with 1.21 per game. Nee was fourth in three point field goal percentage at .467 (14-30) and Novak had the fifth best mark at .441 (15-34) with Allured ninth at .419 (18-43).

As a team the Vikings finished first in scoring offense (80.2 per game), rebounding (39.1 per game), rebounding margin (+5.4) and assists (14.64 per game).

Giovanine just finished his third year at Augustana and has compiled a record of 44-31. His first team in 1999-2000 was 10-15 overall and 4-10 in the CCIW while his 2000-01 club went 17-8 overall and 9-5 in league play.  This season his team went once again finished 17-8 overall and 9-5 in the conference, which was good enough for a second place finish.  In his three seasons as coach Giovanine has posted a 22-20 record in CCIW play. He came to the Vikings after a six-year stint at Lamar University where he was 80-85 with the Cardinals but after going 33-48 his first three years, his last three teams had a record of 47-37. His overall college record is 124-116.

2001-02 COLLEGE CONFERENCE OF ILLINOIS & WISCONSIN STANDINGS